Evaluating CC Certification Value and Renewal Dilemma

[medeng]

Dear CC Community,

I'm reevaluating the value of the Certified in Cybersecurity (CC) certification by ISC2 and facing a renewal dilemma due to concerns about its relevance and the yearly certification fee.

One of my primary concerns is the diminishing recognition and relevance of the CC certification in today's competitive job market. Despite my efforts to leverage this certification to advance my career, I've encountered challenges in gaining the acknowledgment and opportunities I had anticipated.

Have you found the CC certification beneficial in your career? How do you weigh the value against the renewal cost? Your insights are invaluable.

Thank you.

[Awalker]

Hey yeah this has helped me so I've moved in to CTI so I'm pursuing crest certs in CTI as well as looking at Sans courses CC gave a good overview and then going to then build upon that in the SSCP.

Cyber never stands still and even through you have the cc you need to peruse that next exam to get through the HR screening process

[tldutton]

That's a great approach...take the next certification exam once you have the required experience.

[esciko]

CC gives you an excellent foundation to get started in security. It covers a broad range of topics that helped me tremendously on A+, Net+, and my college coursework. However, I didn’t notice employers paying any mind to it at all. But this was before it was fully accredited (I passed all the way back in 2022 and also expected it to change my job hunt, but unfortunately that didn’t happen.)

So I decided to go to school for security instead and get a B.S. in Cybersecurity. And my program has a lot of other certs with it, so I’ll have both a bachelor’s and some awesome certs when I’m done.

It’s hard to get a job in security without experience—or a degree with internships or some impressive coursework (I’m talking capstone projects with riveting results or something). Certs can be a shortcut but CC isn’t well known enough yet. Although the organization is doing a good job promoting it, you’re up against people who have had Sec+ and Net+ for years. And those are way more well known, aka what employers are looking for. You have to remember that although CC is gaining traction in our field, the average HR person reading resumes probably doesn’t even know what CC is. So maybe you can demonstrate its value in your cover letter or talk about how you applied what you learned on your resume. Best of luck.

[Jacko]

Could you provide information on volunteer opportunities? I have registered with isc2 on the volunteer site and have received no request for my services.  Is there a better resource?

[kopechli]

I am new myself to (CC), but like any other basic certification i have, is just knowledge attestation in a practical oriented field. Demonstrating practical skills, through labs and projects is more useful and marketable. Now there are some specifics that can make a certain certification to pop up in job postings more than others (Country etc.) but in the and of the day, all basic certification, and by my opinion many advanced one's are just there for the first filtering out of C.V's. I do not know you, or your background, but i will assume that If you managed to get to an interview, that was probably because of your certification. That said i will like to see labs and projects for the newcomers in this platform.

[tldutton]

@Jacko 

If interested in participating in one of our exam content development workshops, go here: https://www.isc2.org/volunteer/volunteer-opportunities/exam-development

My events manager will reach out to you if you meet the criteria for the type of workshop she is soliciting volunteers for.